100 Themes Challenge! 7
by Linnea-chan
Summary: Number 7 for my 100 Themes Challenge. My parents loved to tell me stories. About the Mage of Killing. They would warn me about his heinous deeds and scold me when I went out after dark. So I knew I had to find him. (Written with the canon knowledge of Zeref and Mavis as of chapter 340-I had to make up a lot of it.)


**Skip this one if you haven't read/watched Fairy Tail!**

**Next one:** will probably not be Fairy tail.

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**Author's Note:**

I ASSUMED A LOT. SHUT UP. Also, Zeref CAN'T hear/feel/see ghost Mavis in the first place, even though they have a whole conversation in the 340th chapter. He can only feel her presence.

Also, I had no idea what genre this was. So I just put Spiritual because there is a ghost.

Sorry for not updating in a long time... had writer's block mixed with a severe dose of laziness.

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**Theme #7**

**Time**

I watched, curious, as the black-haired boy in front of me meditated in a circle of dead grass. I knew he knew I was there, but he didn't make any move to shoo me away.

Finally, at long last, his black eyes snapped open to glare at me.

"What do you want, little girl?" he asked. "Do you _want_ to die?"

I mulled over his words for a moment. "No," I finally decided. "I'm still only four." To emphasize my point, I held up four fingers.

"I'm three hundred and ten years old." A bunch of dead leaves, presumably three hundred and ten of them, swirled around him for a moment, before he let them drop back down to the ground.

"Oh. You look younger. Twenty, maybe." When he didn't do anything, I cautiously closed the distance between us and sat down next to him. "I'm Mavis."

He didn't say anything, so I just sat there, playing with a strand of my blond hair.

"What's yours?" I finally asked, to break the silence.

I thought he'd fallen asleep until he said, "My what?"

"Your name."

He hesitated.

"I'm Mavis," I told him again, just to make sure he knew.

"I know," he said. "I'm… Zeref."

"I know now," I said.

"You should stay away from me," he warned. "Unless you want to die. Mavis."

"Zeref."

"Mavis. There's a reason I'm called the Killing Mage."

"I know," I said, and I really did. Father and Mother liked to warn me about him. The Black Mage from their stories killed and burned and murdered. The Zeref next to me was cold, but… I liked being around him. "I know about you. That's why I came here, to Tenrou Island. I wanted to meet you."

"You might die."

"I know."

"You should go. Mavis."

"Zeref."

Until he said that, I hadn't noticed the sun setting around us, warm colors dancing across the ground. The grass around him no longer looked dead, with everything washed in yellows and oranges and reds.

My parents would be worried.

I got up, brushing some leaves off my light pink skirt. "Zeref."

"Mavis." He looked up at me.

"Can we meet again?" I asked him, hope creeping into my voice. "Even just for a minute?"

He got up, too, so I was the one looking up at him. After a while, he finally gave a little nod. "Just for a minute. If you're that sure you will not die in my presence."

"Pinky swear." I held up my pinky finger, trying to wave it in his face.

Grudgingly, he raised his pinky and hooked it with my own. "Alright."

We shook pinkies. Then we parted. I went back home, to the arms of worrying guardians. He went back to the caverns of Tenrou Island.

That was many, many decades ago.

The place where we once sat is now overgrown with shrubbery, and in the middle of it all is a simple, yet large stone grave. The grave is my own.

It never gets many visitors, because no one can ever find it, really. But today there is someone there.

His appearance hasn't changed at all since I last met him in person, although his wardrobe got a few tweaks here and there. His hair is still black, and so are his eyes. He still looks twenty.

I float above his head, knowing he cannot see me. My youth has been returned to me, but now I exist only in my ethereal body. As a ghost, you might say, although I prefer spirit, or even fairy.

"It's been a while," he says, one hand resting one my tombstone. "Mavis."

"Zeref," I say, despite knowing he can't hear me. "Zeref."

"I can't see you, but I know you're there. Mavis."

"Zeref."

"Mavis."

We fall silent.

After sixty seconds go by, he turns and walks away. One minute, just like he promised.

But I know he'll be back next year, for exactly one minute, because he's done this every year since I drew my last breath.


End file.
